Esra is a Scientific Specialist in Hydrogeology at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute, where she has worked since August 2022. She previously received a M.S. degree in Hydrogéologie et Transferts from the Université de Poitiers, France.
Her research focuses on groundwater–surface water (GW–SW) interactions. As part of the Computational Hydrology for Decision Support (CH4DS) research group, she has contributed to the development of multiple ParFlow models to simulate groundwater rise after dewatering system shutdown at Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) infrastructure in the East St. Louis area.
She is currently working on advancing ParFlow modeling to support updates to the Infrastructure Protection Analysis Modeling (IPAM) Report, as well as transitioning existing groundwater models to the MODFLOW 6 platform.